Hi everyone! I'm new to CF but not new to mudding and I'm just wondering - where is the RP at? The mud is listed as a RP enforced mud but I haven't really seen any evidence of this thus far. Granted, I've only been playing for a few hours, but I always find one of the hardest things to do as a new player is to break into the already established roleplaying cliques within the game.

I would really appreciate some advice on how to get involved.

Any other advice on how to survive being a newbie here on CF would also be greatly appreciated.

Usually, people respond. But you'll need to have something to say too. Characters in CF should be always RPing, so that's how you get the interaction going.

Java is right.

I used to play on a mud where characters never died. So you start as a new player and you had a bunch of people that all knew each other, and had characters that had been going on for years. It was tough to "break in" as you put it, since they were also snobs and elitists.

On CF, all characters cease to exist at some point, so you don't have that sort of thing going on.

Any time you talk to anybody, they should be RPing. But as Java said, in the lower levels they might be pre-occupied with getting other things done, so a lot will do the minimum required. But my current lowbie had minor but quality RP interactions with several people already.

Usually if you step up your RP people will repsond. If I get into a group with two people that are strictly business, I usually don't RP very hard. But if one or both of them are strong RPers I will follow suit.

There aren't RP "cliques" anywhere. The RP isn't "at" any specific place.

Any time you type "where" in the game, and see other players, there will be ongoing RP. Every single character in the game, 100% of the time, is playing a role.

In a way, it's more realistic than the type of MUDs I think you're referring to. You don't go to a specific place and have an RP session, then go off and have an OOC ranking session and so on. Joe the Fire Giant should ALWAYS be "Joe the Fire Giant", no matter what he happens to be doing. So if you're Jack the Elf and go to "RP with" him, he might just bash you down and continue on his merry way. But that might be his RP, and he would react differently if you were an Orc, for example.

Granted, some players do the bare minimum, especially during the more tedious parts of the game (leveling up). But that's to be expected with any game.

Your best bet for involved, consistent and ongoing RP is through one of the various cabals. If you aren't really interested in PK, your best bet is Heralds. Otherwise, pretty much everything is open depending on what type of role you want to play.

Especially with the recent addition of guild channels, thief guilds tend to offer a good environment for getting to interact with people... not to mention that being a thief is pretty good for avoiding most of the bash-down type interaction if that's not your style. The entry fee might be a bit steep especially for a new player, but getting someone to sponsor your entrance into the guild would offer some RP opportunity, too.

The Inn of the Eternal Star is probably the easiest place for a newbie to rp, since its just casual bar talk generally, you dont run into the hideous incongruities that comes from being a newbie rping.

And in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere, since its more of a winding down place, Joe the fire giant might be slightly more likely to chat with Bob the Nexun than bash him down.